I’m writing this blog aboard a Shinkansen heading to Hiroshima with my wife Kammy. Niles, our older son, and I ran our 2nd Abbotts marathon at Tokyo (first one was at Chicago in 2024) yesterday. Still a little sore, but super proud that I got to run a marathon (again) with Niles. With minimal training in the freezing Chicago winter to a 70 degree day in Tokyo, I’m amazed at how he willed himself to the finish. We also lucked out with the weather as the rain stayed held off until the day after the marathon!

You can read my last post about the pre-race vibes & tips, including our packet pick up experience. Here’s our Strava activity:

Tokyo Marathon – The  L Corral

We moved hotels from Yanaka to Shibaura for the night before & after the marathon, as this had a direct Yamanote line to the start and from the finish. We headed out of the hotel at 7am and got to Shinjuku station by 7:35am.

They had signs everywhere to the assigned entry gate. Niles & I were in different corrals, but since we planned on running together, we were told to get to the L corral. Interestingly not many people knew about this, even on the ground. We navigated our way, managed to communicate with some combination of Apple translate & gestures and got into the L corral by 8:30am. This corral seemed to have mostly local folks.

Tokyo Marathon – The Course

We could hear the gun fire for the start of wheelchair & elite athletes and slowly worked our way to the start line. Compared to the raucousness of Boston or Chicago, the mood was a bit more somber here, just a quiet calm about the whole thing. We opened into a little shuffle and we were on our way!

We headed east for a while, toward the river, jostling amongst other runners and finding our way through them. Even the spectators had a quiet way of cheering everyone. Kammy and Jonah (Niles’ roommate from Chicago) showed up at the 10km turnaround near Ueno!

Up north now, towards Senso-Ji shrine in Asakusa to the 18km turnaround. The temperature was creeping up a little and we were interspersing our running with a little walk here and there. Pocari Sweat electrolyte was pretty good and for both of us, quite GI friendly even in the later part of the run. Kammy and Jonah were here too, but I missed them after stopping for a potty break, followed by a sprint to catch up with Niles.

I was looking forward to the aid station food and it didn’t disappoint! Soon after I popped the first gel, Niles points to an aid station table and I saw custard buns, adzuki bean paste and chocolate! Definitely an eating competition with some running thrown in!

One more out & back to Tomioka, passed Ginza, then Hibiya park for the last turnaround at Shibaura, pretty close to our hotel. We were walking a bit more and I remember a long section (felt like it anyways) with no aid station or water. We were being helped by good samaritans offering coke, water and even a menthol spray of sorts to ease muscle fatigue. Felt warm in the sun and I could tell Niles was starting to dig deep. Run to the 2nd traffic light, walk till that sign, salt pills to prevent cramping, a little water on the buff, one foot in front of the other – the late stage marathon Jedi mind tricks!

One more sighting of Kammy & Jonah at 37km and she got us a bottle of water and brought the Therabody mini! I bet I’m one of the few people in the world to finish a marathon with a massage gun in the running vest! The 5km stretch towards Tokyo central felt long. Many walkers now, cramping up in the warmth and we tried to cheer the others along the way.

One last km and we ran this entire section, crossing the finish line in a little over 5 hours. An amazing experience and incredibly proud of Niles for pulling this off (again). Met up with Kammy and Jonah, rested for a bit and made our way back to the hotel. While I usually don’t do swag (definitely no medals), I had fun sporting the Tokyo Marathon robe which kept me warm in the cooling evening.

An interesting thing we noticed was how little litter there was along the course. The majority of the runners would hold the torn gels and water cups until they’d see a volunteer with a garbage bag on the side lines. Another aspect was there were mobile medics on bikes along the course tending to cramps, GI or other issues.

Now that I think about it, this is my first international marathon and it was definitely a unique experience. Looking forward to Berlin in September to run our 3rd dad/son Abbotts! Wonder what food they’ll have in those aid stations?